ALI ILHAMI, A BEKTASHI FOLK POET AND HIS DIVAN

Bektashi order has a deep-rooted tradition, and a long history. This situation was reflected in the Bektashi literature and led to the emergence of rich Bektashi literature. Bektashi poets reflected their cultural background, beliefs, traditions and lives in their poems. Ali İlhami, who was a member of the Bektashi order and who had been a Shaikh for the Seyyid Battal Gazi Lodge for many years, was one of the folk poets who successfully used the methods and principles, subtleties, beliefs and traditions of this order in his poems. It is seen that his poems focus on the love of Allah, Hz. Ali, Hz. Hasan, Hz. Hüseyin, Twelve Imams, Haci Bektashi Veli, Battal Gazi, the Karbala incident, and devotion to the founders of the order and mentors. The topics such as nature, the transience of the world and human love are also handled in his poems. He shaped his poetry with advices such as not following the soul, not seeing the fault of anyone, and abandoning the love of the world. Considering Ali İlhami’s poems, it is seen that these are the poems that overlap with the principles of Bektashi order and support the rites of this path. Ali İlhami's poems were collected by Şükrü Efendi, the grandson of the poet, and arranged as Dîvân-ı Şeyh İlhâmî and Seyyid Battal Gazi. In this study, it is aimed to add a new and rich source to the Turkish folk poetry treasury by transferring 49 poems in the in the printed copy of Ali İlhami’s Divan, one of the 19th century folk poets, written in Ottoman Turkish to Latin letters. In addition, based on the poems in the Divan, how the Bektashi doctrine was handled in İlhami's poetry and how it was expressed was also emphasized. Keywords: Tasawwuf, Bektashi Order, Ali Ilhami, Divan, Poem.